Some of you folks keep parroting this line and it doesn't help the cause because it is wrong.
I was in the same op area as Kerry, almost two-years before he arrived and we were already losing boats and crews. In fact, if memory serves, PCF-4 was the first boat to be sunk in Feb. 1966. I was there...PCF-4 relieved our boat doing close coastal surveillance when it hit a mine and was sunk with the loss of 4 of its 6-member crew. Our boat returned to the area immediately after we heard the SOS and was engaged, along with other Swifts, in a long fire fight from the very nearby shore...in water that was about 6-feet deep. I helped pull the 4-bodies out of the water and have photos of bullets splashing around our boat during the fight. It wasn't until a dragon ship flew in and suppressed the shore fire that things settled down.
I'm not sure why Kerry volunteered for Swifts, possibly because they were the closest thing to the PT boats of his hero, JF Kennedy, but it couldn't have been because they were "water taxis" as you say. I would advise backing off from this line of attack. Cheers PCFs 10, 45 & 50 1965 - 1966
I stand corrected. Did the SWIFT mission change at after sKerry volunteered? For example, did it change from exclusively coastal mission to coastal and river? Was the river duty more hazardous than the coastal duty?
"I would advise backing off from this line of attack."
Why do you suppose the Swift Boat Vets for the Truth are not backing off?